USA Funds Staff Profile: Promoting Student Success One Borrower at a Time

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Lynn Knapp is analyzing lists, marking changes to schedules of calls to make to borrowers to counsel them about their student loan repayment options.

This retooling of call schedules is part of an ongoing process to ensure that the USA Funds Borrower Connect InTouchSM team is reaching out to borrowers in ways that are most likely to get those borrowers on the road to successful repayment.

“We are constantly looking for ways to effectively counsel borrowers, and to make sure they are on track with a repayment schedule that works within each borrower’s individual budget,” says Knapp, USA Funds Borrower Connect InTouch team leader since last October.

Scheduling is just one of Knapp’s responsibilities as the head of a group of 24 that performs borrower outreach on behalf of schools. She also trains staff and serves as the point person for enhancements to the USA Funds Borrower Connect InTouch platform.

USA Funds Borrower Connect InTouch is a staffing solution that provides the benefits of individual counseling with borrowers — without all the work from schools.

Prior to becoming USA Funds Borrower Connect InTouch team leader, Knapp was part of the service’s pilot team. Her work with USA Funds Borrower Connect InTouch, she says, brings her full circle in a USA Funds® career that began more than 30 years ago with default prevention work.

“When I started at USA Funds in 1981, I was doing almost exactly what I’m doing now,” Knapp says. “We contacted borrowers to make sure they understood their options for repaying their loans.”

Although her roles at USA Funds and elsewhere since then have not always focused specifically on student loan default prevention, they all tied to customer service. She’s led call centers serving schools, lenders and students.

“This role is a natural fit for me,” Knapp says of her work with USA Funds Borrower Connect InTouch. “And USA Funds Borrower Connect InTouch is a natural fit for USA Funds, because helping people has always been what this organization is about. Even if it’s one borrower at a time, it benefits students and lower schools’ cohort default rates.”

Nationally, USA Funds Borrower Connect InTouch has brought current the student loan accounts of 80 percent of borrowers the service contacted, with verbal confirmation of an achievable repayment plan for those borrowers with their servicers.

“Our team helps someone — the student and the school — every time we make contact on the telephone,” Knapp says.

Raised and currently based in Indianapolis, Knapp attended Indiana University in Bloomington.